Looking for signs of a network attack

CAT AND MOUSE

If you think your systems are too obscure for an attacker to worry about, think again. Today’s intruders are happy for any victim.

Are your doors locked? Is you data safe? In the beginning, the first network intruders were just playing around. They slipped in just to prove they could – as an intellectual challenge or maybe a chance to feel brave. Times have changed, though, and if you care about security, you’d better change with them. Today’s systems hold critical information with a cash value – credit card numbers, medical records, email addresses. And the system itself can become a tool of the intruder. Cyber-criminals employ sophisticated techniques to commandeer perfectly ordinary computers for forwarding spam and launching denial of service attacks. And the teenage vandals? They are still out there also. To stay ahead of them all, you’ll need to know what they know – and you’ll need to know how to look for their tracks. We’ll show you what to look for in this month’s Detecting Intruders cover story.